Photovoltaic Systems

The visitor center at the Bernheim Arboretum in Clairmont, Kentucky, which was completed in 2005, continues to garner attention.  In 2007, it was awarded LEED Platinum certification.  Most recently, the visitor center has received the EPA’s prestigious Lifecycle Building Challenge Award.  This is the third year that the EPA has held the challenge where entrants are judged on their building’s ability to minimize waste, reduce energy consumption, and be disassembled for material reuse.  The visitor center took an award in the Building–Professional Built category and an Outstanding Achievement Award for Best Greenhouse Gas Reduction. 

While the LEED Platinum visitor center is primarily constructed of wood, very few trees were cut down for building materials or site clearing.  Only eight trees greater than four inches in diameter were removed for
site construction.  To offset them, 256 cypress trees were planted to
make a new cypress-tupelo swamp along a lake. 

Speaking of trees, deciduous trees on the south-facing side provide shade in the summer to
lower cooling costs and allow for passive solar heating in the winter
when the leaves have fallen.  In addition, the building’s columns and beams were created with cypress wood sourced from old pickle vats and bourbon rack house lumber.  Some other environmental aspects of the project include:

• A green roof that reduces runoff, provides additional insulation;
• An 8,000 gallon underwater cistern that provides water for flush toilets;
• A rain garden with plants and trees that hold and purify water;
• A sloped parking lot that carries polluted runoff water to oyster mushroom beds, which transform the pollutants into compounds that don’t harm the environment;
• Bathroom partitions made from high recycled content high density polyethylene (HDPE);
• Concrete with a mixture of 50% fly ash and 50% sourced from a local stockpile of recycled aggregate; and
• Polished concrete floor that eliminates the need for carpet.

In a press release, William McDonough, co-author of Cradle to Cradle™, said, “The Bernheim Visitor Center represented a magical opportunity; a chance to design a building like a tree. Made up of biological and technical ‘nutrients’ the building exemplifies the Cradle to Cradle approach to design. Imagine a building like a tree; it makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, purifies water, builds soil, provides habitat for hundreds of species, accrues solar energy as fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates micro climates and changes colors with the seasons. The Bernheim Visitor Center can do all this and more. If a building could be alive it would be this building.“

Photo credits:  William McDonough + Partners and Bernheim.

Hocking College — a two-year technical college in Nelsonville, Ohio — has trained its students for jobs in Ohio’s manufacturing sector since 1968.  As these jobs began leaving the state, Hocking College saw the potential for growth in alternative energy jobs.  The school launched the Energy Institute in 2002, with just three students to offer training in advanced energy and fuel cells.  Enrollment has since increased to 125 students and the curriculum has also expanded to include hybrid and plug-in vehicle courses, as well as courses about wind and solar power. 

The school’s newly completed building, located in Hocking County, reflects Hocking College’s commitment to participating in the new green economy.  The 12,200 square-foot building is on track to become the first higher education building in Ohio to receive LEED Platinum certification.  

Some of the building’s green features include the following:

• 26 geothermal wells for heating and cooling;
• A 21 kW roof-integrated photovoltaic system;
• An expansive vegetated roof;
• North-South orientation to maximize natural light;
• CNG filling station and plug-in hybrid charging stations;
• A solar hot water heater; and
• Durable, low-maintenance concrete floors. 

Building and designing this structure to LEED Platinum specs involved the collaborative efforts of several parties, including the Energy Institute, Robertson Construction, and architectural firm Design Group of Columbus, Ohio.  Once up and running, HCEI will use half
as much energy as a similar building.  It’s estimated to save the
college about $10,000 a year. 

As anyone familiar with the LEED projects knows, it’s important to have a collaborative and flexible environment and that’s how this project team worked.  Changes were made (i.e., the addition of a wind turbine and electric car plug-in stations using grant money), and the construction team was willing to accommodate.  Dean of HCEI, Jerry Hutton, recalls, “If the (general contractor) Robertson had given me heartburn over these changes, it would have been very difficult to get this completed.  But they took it in stride and stayed focused on getting the job done on time and on budget.”

This past fall, then-senator Barack Obama made a campaign stop at Hocking College and had this to say: “This college is just outstanding in preparing young people to work in green-collar jobs, which are the jobs of the future.“  This new facility could become a lighthouse project for the new green economy.

Photo credits: Feinknopf Photography.

This year’s Innovation Pipeline at West Coast Green was relatively small.  In part this may reflect the state of the economy, which has lead to decreased investments in new building technologies.  Despite that, there are a few interesting technologies that have been brought to market recently or will hopefully be available soon.  Here’s a look at several products that may just change the future of this industry. 

1. H2Orb

The H2Orb from AquaOne Technologies is a small sphere with a display that connects to the water supply line and two remote sensors.  It detects leaks or overflows, and then sounds an alarm or shuts off the water or both.  At $125 it’s more expensive than low-end toilets, so why would a homeowner spend that kind of money?  It makes more sense to replace an old, leaky toilet with a new, low gallon-per-flush model. But the H2Orb was inspired by the needs of assisted living facilities and other institutional buildings where a leak or an overflow might go unnoticed for long periods.  Multiply a small leak by dozens or hundreds of toilets over days or weeks, and staggering amounts of water can be wasted.  It can also protect against damage by shutting off the water in the event of an overflow.  AquaOne says it can be installed in 7 minutes.

2. IceCold

Designed for large HVAC systems, IceCold is like anti-cholesterol medicine for refrigerant.  It works by reducing oil fouling in the coils and thereby increasing system efficiency.  It’s expensive, but it’s a one-time application, and they promise a 10% or better improvement by measuring efficiency before and after application.

3. SolarClover

Uniquely shaped solar panels from Armageddon Energy, the SolarClover is designed to be lighter, more flexible, and easier to install than traditional solar panels. The SolarClover system uses micro inverters on each cluster instead of a single inverter for the whole array (similar to the Solar in a Box system).  That means the home run is AC at lower voltages than a DC home run would be, and the overall system efficiency is less impacted by shading of a few panels.  Look for it on the market during 2010.

4. Stak Blocks

A new twist on straw bale construction, Oryzatech compresses rice straw (an agricultural waste product) into interlocking blocks.  Walls are bolted to the foundation with threaded rods running top to bottom through holes, which also provide vertical chases for electrical.  The resulting walls are R-50, fire-resistant, and provide better shear strength than a traditional sheathed 2×4 wall.  The blocks are about 30 pounds each, and easily cut with a saw.  There are still some problems to sort out, including horizontal runs of electrical and plumbing, but it’s an exciting product idea.  Oryzatech is currently looking for investors, so there’s no announced release date.

5. BrightSpark

Using wireless technology, BrightSpark from Econetix is a plug-and-play home energy management system.  There will be a DIY starter kit for $250 that includes a B&W touchscreen (which also serves as a programmable thermostat), 3 light sockets, a wall outlet, and a 6 outlet power strip, and a larger Retrofit / New Construction Kit and color touchscreen.  The system gives you a dashboard showing energy consumption of individual fixtures, but can also be programmed to quickly put the entire house into “sleep mode.”  The company is in talks with PG&E to get access to smart meters as those are rolled out, so BrightSpark can also show real-time energy usage of the entire house.

6. EcoBatts

Not from the Innovation Pipeline, and only new in the U.S., EcoBatts is an interesting “new” product nonetheless.  As with other fiberglass insulation, it’s made ultimately from sand, but Knauf also uses recycled glass.  Its bio-based ECOSE binder also means there’s no phenol or formaldehyde.  The result is a batt that costs the same as other traditional fiberglass batts, but is GreenGuard certified for Children & Schools.

Photo credits: Gene Anderson.

Today at West Coast Green 2009, Green Horizon showcased their new SFH40 on-demand housing, and it’s an impressive unit.  Designed to be a self-sustaining home for a family of four, it can be shipped anywhere in the world in a standard shipping container and set up in less than two hours by unskilled people.  Each unit has two bedrooms with built in furniture, a bathroom, and a kitchen area.  But it’s also designed to be a self-sustaining shelter in the aftermath of a disaster when infrastructure may be damaged, so it includes solar panels and batteries, a bio-diesel generator as backup, and water purification equipment.  Units can be interconnected to share power and water.

Each unit has water storage tanks, so it can be shipped with water and ready to support a family when it’s set up.  After a unit is delivered to a site, legs are lowered to level and support it.  The structure widens to 13 feet, plus a deck folds out, making for a fair sized living space.  At 13×40 feet, it’s definitely a lot bigger and nicer than a FEMA trailer.

But the improvements don’t stop there.  The units are going to be made from 100% recyclable or recycled materials, and the goal is to have them be zero-impact and fully self-sufficient.  Units can be stacked while loaded within a container.  And they also have wheels and a trailer yoke and are DOT certified, so they can be moved to a new location after delivery using a 3/4 ton pickup.

The SFH40 is is the first in a series of containerized disaster relief units envisioned by Green Horizon president and CEO, James Pope. Even before Hurricane Katrina, he imagined a housing unit that would fit in a container and could be shipped anywhere as needed.  Like many people, he was shocked by the devastation that hurricanes Katrina and Rita left in their wake and wanted to help. But he was also saddened by the slow response, and the now infamous trailers that caused some occupants to get sick.  RV trailers just weren’t designed for long-term living.  He knew he could do better and used his early experience developing SIPs to create a prototype unit.

Besides units providing shelter for families affected by disaster, Green Horizon has designed units to help support disaster relief teams.  The full line includes an administrative unit, a bunk house for relief workers, a commissary, a community center, and a medical unit, all engineered and built to be low impact.  The units are designed to form the center of a hub for a disaster relief team, and as with the housing units, can be interconnected to share power and water.

After a disaster, units can be cleaned and put back into storage.  If part of a unit is damaged, the modular design makes it easy to remove the component and repair or replace it.  Green Horizon will have factories in Missouri, Germany, and a main factory in Stockton, California.  Although it’s inland, Stockton is a port city, and from there, units in containers can easily be shipped anywhere as the need arises.  Rather than being exposed to the elements, storing them in containers means the units can be in storage for extended periods until needed.

Final pricing hasn’t been set, but is expected to be around $89,000 if bought in larger volumes (and $120,000 for smaller volumes).  Green Horizon plans to be able to store up to 600 houses in containers in a secure facility in Stockton.  Other units could be stored in various places around the country and around the world, ready to deploy when disaster strikes.

[+] More Photos of SFH40 on Flickr by Gene Anderson.